Red Wings 1, Bruins 0: Datsyuk’s third-period goal sinks Boston

BOSTON — No one said it was going to be easy.

Pavel Datsyuk beat goalie Tuukka Rask with a 35-foot wrist shot with 3:01 left to give the underdog Detroit Red Wings a thrilling 1-0 win over the undermanned Boston Bruins on Friday night at the TD Garden.

With the win, Detroit leads the Stanley Cup first-round playoff series, one game to none. Game Two will be Sunday afternoon at 3 o’clock in Boston.

Datsyuk’s goal came seconds after a shot by Boston’s Milan Lucic was saved by Wings goalie Jimmy Howard but narrowly missed rolling into the net.

After Datsyuk was able to control a pass from Johan Franzen in the neutral zone, he skated across the Boston blue line and cut to his left, then fired a wrist shot against the grain that beat Rask on the glove side.

“That’s how it goes most of the time. One team has a chance, doesn’t score, and then the other team comes down and capitalizes,” said Rask (23 saves).

“He was by himself there so I was anticipating a shot. He drags it across. You just try to get the puck in your eyes. It squeaked by me. Usually he tries to make a pass. I was ready for the shot, I just couldn’t see it.”

Howard (25 saves) said he was lucky to get a piece of Lucic’s shot.

“It was a fortunate save,” the Wings’ goalie said. “He stuck his stick out and got a lot on it and it just sort of spun off my glove and I was just able to get enough on it.”

Boston played without four regulars. Daniel Paille (upper body) and Chris Kelly (back) are injured, while Matt Bartkowski and Kevan Miller have been sick with the flu.

“It came down to whoever was going to score that one goal,” said Boston’s Zdeno Chara. “The goalies were very good, and there were some chances on both sides. Eventually, it went in for them.”

The teams played a fairly even first period, with the Wings outshooting the Bruins, 11-9.

Neither team had many great chances early. Detroit defenseman Danny Dekeyser made a sprawling block with Howard out of position just before the 10-minute mark, then center Luke Glendening broke up a Boston chance with a strong backcheck.

Detroit had the only power play of the first period when Chara was whistled for boarding with 3:52 left. The Wings spent a lot of time in the Boston zone, but could manage just one shot.

Brad Marchand of the Bruins did his best to agitate some of the Wings, exchanging cross-checks with Niklas Kronwall, shoving Datsyuk and throwing a solid hit on Gustav Nyquist in the final seconds, then throwing some choice words in Nyquist’s direction at the buzzer.

Julien matched Patrice Bergeron and Chara against Datsyuk as often as he could.

The scoreless second period had a lot of ebbs and flows. Bruins had the better of the play early on, holding the Wings without a shot for the first 6:16.

But the Wings turned up the heat when defenseman Brendan Smith captured the puck in the Boston zone and set up Datsyuk for a good chance, but the Russian missed the net.

The Wings then carried the play for the next several minutes, pinning the Bruins in their end of the ice and forcing Rask to make some nimble saves.

Boston nearly broke through 11 minutes into the period when a Bruins shot from the point nearly bounced in after hitting Jordan Caron. But Howard made a last-second save.

Boston’s Torey Krug was called for holding at 15:15 at the end of a long shift, but the Bruins were able to kill the penalty without damage.

Milan Lucic got away with a spear on Dekeyser at the end of the period, or Boston could have been short-handed again.

The line of Bergeron, Marchand and Reilly Smith was held to just one shot through 40 minutes. Boston outshot Detroit in the second, 7-5. Dougie Hamilton led the way with three. Tomas Tatar had four for the Wings.